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Homemade Lemon Meringue Pie

The Very Best Homemade Lemon Meringue Pie

If your pie comes from powder in a box, STOP! A fantastic homemade lemon meringue pie, made completely from scratch, tastes much better and is actually just as easy to prepare.
Course Pies
Cuisine North American
Keyword lemon, lemon meringue, meringue
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 12 servings
Calories 299 kcal
Author Barry C. Parsons

Ingredients

For the Pastry. Sufficient for two 10 inch pie shells.

  • 1 cup very cold butter cut into small cubes
  • 2 ½ cups flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup ice water or a little more. Only enough to make a dough form.

For the Filling

  • 1/3 cup corn starch
  • 1/3 cup cake flour
  • pinch salt
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 5 egg yolk slightly beaten
  • Zest of 2 lemons very finely chopped
  • Juice of 2 lemons about 1/4 cup.
  • 2 cups water
  • 3 tbsp butter

For the meringue

  • 5 egg whites
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • ¼ tsp cream of tarter
  • Pinch salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

To make the pastry

  1. Using a food processor or a pastry blender cut cold butter into flour and salt until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Small pieces of butter should still be visible.
  2. Pour cold water over the mixture and work in by tossing with a fork until dough begins to form. Use your hands as little as possible and work the dough as little as possible.
  3. Divide dough into 2 balls, flatten into 2 rounds, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to rest for a minimum of 20 minutes. You can freeze the second round for another time.
  4. You can make your dough the previous day but make sure you take it out of the fridge for 10 minutes to warm slightly before rolling out.
  5. Roll the dough into a 12 inch round and place in the bottom of a 10 inch pie plate.
  6. Trim and flute the edges as desired. Poke a few holes in the bottom of the pastry shell, rest in the refrigerator for an additional 20 minutes before baking at 400 degrees F for 12 – 15 minutes or until golden brown.
  7. Cool completely before adding the filling.

To make the filling

  1. In a medium saucepan, combine corn starch, cake flour, sugar and salt. Pour in water and stir constantly over medium low heat until mixture comes to a slow boil.
  2. Remove the pan from the heat and reduce the flame to low.
  3. Pour about a cup of this mixture onto the slightly beaten egg yolks while whisking constantly.
  4. Pour the egg mixture back into the rest of the other mixture in the pot, whisking constantly.
  5. Return to the stove and cook for an additional 3 minutes stirring constantly.
  6. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and lemon rind.
  7. Finally whisk in your butter one tbsp at a time.
  8. Pour the filling into the baked and cooled shell. Let stand for a few minutes while preparing the meringue.

To prepare the meringue

  1. Whip egg whites, vanilla, salt and cream of tarter to soft peaks.
  2. Very gradually add the sugar while continuing to beat the egg whites.
  3. Dollop in heaping tablespoonfuls onto pie. Gently spread over the filling, making sure that the meringue touches the crust all the way around the pie. This will help to prevent the meringue from shrinking.
  4. Bake in a 325 degree F oven for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the meringue is well browned. Cool pie thoroughly in the refrigerator before serving.
  5. Keep refrigerated.
  6. Dip a sharp knife in cold water to help with cutting the pie into slices and clean the knife with paper towel between cuts.

Recipe Notes

In reviewing the comments and following up with some people who had issues with this recipe, please note that you should not attempt to make any substitutions. At the end, when it says to add the butter, ONLY REAL DAIRY BUTTER will work. Many people have reported using margarine, even the tub of spreadable margarine. That is the road to sure disaster. Butter means butter.

- The amount of lemon juice is often asked about online and in emails. I get about 1/4 cup of lemon juice out of 2 lemons. For safety sake don't add more than that. The lemon flavour comes mostly from the zest anyway. The juice just gives it a little tangy flavour. -Be sure to cook the base enough before adding the juice and butter. Use a silicone spatula to scrape the bottom as you stir, so that the mixture will not burn, but it has to be as thick as possible as is shown in the photo.

The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.